Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting crimping cast bullet in the .30-06

What do you experienced guys recommend of the following two options when loading for a bolt action .30-06?
Seat the bullets out to touch the rifling
or
Seat the bullets to the crimping grove and crimp.

These are just mild plinking loads intended for offhand practice, if they deliver satisfactory accuracy. I will probably try both methods and test as I have ancestors from Missouri but wanted to know what others have observed with their cast bullet reloads.

I know if I was carrying a pocket full of ammo I would want the grease grooves covered or if I was using a tube fed magazine I would crimp the loads but I am not doing either of those things.

Mild jam to the lands, NO crimp.

Would you like to unload a loaded round from the chamber? If so don’t jam them into the lands.

Done correctly, it isn't an issue.

If you want it to be accurate, as in jacketed accurate, you want it in the lands without jump.

Cast needs fit, snugger the better, and eliminating the jumping, smashing and battering is part of that fit equation. And yes, you can do it without creating a collet bullet puller in the process...

Furry, I wrote touching not jammed.

Try powder coating your cast bullets, then you don’t have to be concerned about the grease grooves being exposed to dirt, ect. Then seat them out to near the lands! memtb

I always seat them to the crimping groove and crimp. Unique is my powder of choice, loads are very accurate.

I seat them out to touch the lands just enough so I can see the engraving on the bullet . They extract just fine,you have to "jam" much more than that to stick a bullet .

I'd keep them out of the lands. Somewhere between .020 to .030" off the lands has been what I've heard recommended by the accuracy experts. I also adjust the seater die to just remove the slight bell from the M die. Generally speaking accuracy goes downhill the more crimp is applied. Sometimes i adjust the seater die to apply slight crimp to the neck on the base of the driving band of the cast bullet.

I've worked with several bolt-action .30-06s and cast bullets in the last few decades. I can't recall one that didn't shoot it's best with the bullet very slightly engraved, just as described by several people here. If you seat a cast bullet well off the lands like a jacketed bullet, accuracy won't be the best. Granted, there are exceptions I'm sure, but I've yet to find to necessary seat cast bullets off the lands in any bolt-action rifle in .30-06, .308, or .30-40 Krag. Same for lever guns and single shots, though sometimes an OAL that will work through the magazine of a lever-action may require the bullet to be seated off the lands. I've never seen a need to crimp for bolt-actions and single shots and you may be able to get by without crimping in a in a lever-action, but don't count on it.

Thanks to all for the useful information and opinions. It sounds like it will be worth experimenting with to obtain the best accuracy possible.

Yeah, experimenting with your particular bullet and rifle is the only path to achieving your goal.

Depends on the configuration/shape of the bullet and alloy hardness that'll determine degree of contact with the leade, not to mention if feeding through a magazine is a consideration also.

Experiment with crimp/no-crimp. But I bet you'll get better results with no crimp. The only things I crimp are revolver rounds and stuff that'll be fed through a tube magazine.

Anecdotally, a case for heavy engagement of a lead bullet in its rifling is in how I seat bullets for my Pope .32-40 High Wall Winchester: the soft lead plain-based bullets get breech seated fully into the rifling, separately and ahead of the charged cartridge case. Accuracy is waaaay better than when shooting the same bullet fixed into the case neck. It exemplifies what was mentioned above: starting a lead bullet straight into and down the bore with as few bumps and grinds as possible (to include crimping IMO) is paramount.

Good luck, and report back! All contributions to the lore of cast bullet shooting are welcome - it's how the sport advances.

What gnoahhh said.

FWIW, one can juggle case length a bit to synchronize crimp grooves/land engagement geometry. It doesn’t take a lot of crimp to make it work. Crimping a drive band is not terribly productive.

.005 off lands no crimp

gnoahhh,

I got a chance to shoot a couple 3 shot groups with the cast bullets this morning before the wind really got going. The 173 grain bullets did very well. I just kept it simple and seated to the crimping groove and then just took the bell off the case mouth, but applied no crimp. The rifle is a P-64 Model 70 featherweight. The load is C.E. Harris's recommended 13 grains of Red Dot set off with a CCI 200 primer. The bullets were sized .310. I shot the other weight bullets first. The first shot in that group was pretty far away but was from a clean bore. The next two were touching. It will be interesting to see how the regular hunting load shoots from a barrel with cast bullet lube in it. Thanks for sharing your experience with me and others.

Scott

Good on you!! (And for the record, that load will put the kibosh on deer with good placement at "woods distances".)

FWIW, the only rounds I’ve ever crimped with cast were loaded in lever guns. Lacking a crimp will present a curious experience after a few rounds.

I crimp all my cast rifle bullets, usually in the provided crimp groove, and in some cases regardless of how far you can safely seat the bullet out you can't touch the rifling. Here are some test targets I shot @ 50 yds. with a couple different Lee bullets and various powders in my Remington 770 in 30-06. All bullets were sized to 309" after powder coating and gas checked and crimped in the provided crimp groove.



My best load to date is the NOE 30 XCB 170 gr. cast bullet over 35.0 grs. of H-4198, average MV for five shots was 2297 fps. Bullet was cast from 50/50 PB/WW coated with Eastwood PC at baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes after powder flow out begin. Bullets were water quenched right out of the toaster, gas checked and allowed to sit for two week before loading. I seated this bullet about .020 off the lands and give it a light crimp using the Lee FCD.

Those are nice targets. I use a bunch of 2400 in my 06.

Thanks, 2400 is one of my favorite powders and I shoot it in lots of rifle and some pistol calibers. It's one of my favorite powders and why I keep several pounds of it on hand at all times.